Why Bitcoin Boomed During the Government Shutdown

Just two weeks after the Feds shuttered the Silk Road , the notorious online drug bazaar, bitcoin prices have touched a five-month high—with a single bitcoin fetching nearly $156 each on Tokyo-based exchange Mt. Gox. Bitcoin’s resiliency can no longer be denied, especially as the digital currency continued its ascendancy even against the backdrop of a US government in utter disarray. At the 11th hour of the crisis, President Obama signed a bill that ended the partial government shutdown and, more importantly, raised the debt ceiling, an arbitrary limit on the amount of money the country can borrow that would have been surpassed today. If Congress had failed to reach a deal and the US was unable to pay its bills, the results might have been catastrophic, eclipsing the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers five years ago, the domino that could trigger the worst financial crisis sinc...